People with Down syndrome who were hospitalized with COVID were six times more likely than others to have a DNR order: news.harvard.edu/gazette/s…
@ablerism That's awful. But it's an awful reminder of things that used to be in the mix of my law practice, and I thank you for sharing it.
@ablerism Don't get me started. In the early 1970s I worked at a state "school" (ha!) for the mentally retarded, as we said at the time. Many, many Down's folks who would now be living active lives in the community, warehoused in a closed institution, often severely held back mentally by environmental deprivation from infancy onward. So, many things have improved greatly, though I wonder about those group homes whose residents you never see...
I have a Down grand-nephew who just finished high school in a public school system and would almost certainly have been institutionalized at birth in those days.
@JohnBrady Right there with you! My son with DS is 18 now; it’s wild to think how much has changed in just a few decades. But all the mixed trajectories of de-institutionalization + inclusive schools vs selective abortion, insidious hospital practices like these… the mind reels. Much to consider.
@ChrisJWilson that’s the one! reminds me to marvel again at the freshness of that book — reading it aloud to my youngest carried the just-written-yesterday sensation
@ablerism Orwell really does have a timeless quality to it. I remember reading it in secondary/high school and finding it fresh then. I love how he shows the rewriting of history.